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Jury's Question: Did Defendant Drive Truck?

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By TODD LESKANIC

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 19, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - No witness who testified in Shannon Stephen's DUI-manslaughter trial this week could answer this question: Was Stephen driving his Chevy Silverado when it hit and killed two pedestrians on March 26, 2006?

That question was left for jurors in deciding whether Stephen is guilty of two counts of DUI-manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving death. As of press time, the jury was still deliberating.

Shannon, 36, of Holiday, faces as much as 45 years in prison if convicted as charged.

According to testimony, Stephen was drinking heavily with friends at Seven's Bar & Grill the night Joseph Swiech and Sarah Gleason were run over on Grand Boulevard. Swiech, 26, and Gleason, 24, who were engaged, were walking back from the Chasco Fiesta when they were hit about 1 a.m.

Rick Scott and Jim Ramsey, who were en route to pick up the couple and another friend, Robert Bartlett, said they found Stephen alone in his damaged Silverado about a mile from the crash site. His blood-alcohol level was 0.24, three times the level at which Florida law presumes a driver to be impaired.

Defense attorney Ken Foote has staked his case on the theory that Jim Wallace, one of Stephen's drinking buddies that night, was driving the Silverado when it plowed into the couple, then jumped out and ran, leaving an inebriated Stephen alone to take the rap. Defense witness Walter Schubart Jr. bolstered Foote's argument Wednesday.

Schubart testified that he saw Stephen and two men outside Seven's that night. He said Stephen fell and then was helped by his two friends to the passenger side of a truck. Schubart said the men put Stephen in the passenger seat, then went around to the driver's side, got in and drove away.

The scenario offered by Schubart differs considerably from the one given by Wallace and Marvin Dalzell, another drinking buddy, who testified for the state earlier in the week. Both said they tried to stop Stephen from driving but that he broke away and left alone in his Silverado.

Much of the state's case hinges on how the jury views the testimony of Ramsey and Scott. They were on their way to pick up Bartlett, Swiech and Gleason when they said they saw a man get out of a battered vehicle at State Road 54 and Grand.

They said they saw the man examine front-end damage and then run to the side of the road and hide behind a traffic control box. He appeared to be on a cell phone.

Not realizing what they were watching, Ramsey and Scott continued to where Bartlett was waiting. They found him standing beside the road, with Swiech and Gleason on the ground nearby. Ramsey and Scott raced back to the intersection, pulled Stephen from the damaged Silverado and held him until authorities arrived.

Ramsey testified that the man he saw in the Silverado was Stephen, the same man he had seen at the intersection minutes earlier. Scott couldn't say it was Stephen but said the man he saw beside the road had the same body shape as Stephen.

Assistant State Attorney Eric Rosario urged jurors to consider which story made more sense.

"I'm not asking you to speculate, to leap to conclusions," he said. "I'm asking you to use your brains and use logic. What makes sense and what requires you to wildly speculate and to guess?"

During his closing argument Wednesday, Foote spent more than an hour punching holes in the state's case. He pointed to cell phone records that show Stephen didn't make any calls for 10 days after a call at 8:14 p.m. March 25, 2006. That includes the time frame when Scott and Ramsey saw the man talking on his cell phone.

On the other hand, Foote said, Wallace's cell phone records show numerous calls to his wife, Kara, and to Dalzell made about the time Swiech and Gleason were hit.

"This is evidence of someone that is pretty frantic about something and wants to get in touch with someone," Foote said, pointing to enlargements of Wallace's call records. "Witnesses can't alter this. This is what happened."

Making Ramsey's identification of Stephen even more questionable is that he and Wallace look similar, Foote said. And how could a man with a 0.24 blood-alcohol level make a dash from a crash scene without stumbling, Foote asked.

"Once you charge a person, there's no going back, and the state wants you to give the stamp of approval on this shoddy investigation and this rush to judgment," he said. "Mr. Stephen deserves better than that. These families deserve to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones. The truth."

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com. Go to pasco.tbo.com for the latest on the trial of Shannon Stephen.

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